NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick shared this view of the moon and an aurora from the ISS in August … (+)
Our fickle sun is spitting out bursts of light, gifting Earth with spectacular auroras. Observers on Earth are enjoying the light show, but astronauts on the International Space Station are in for a special treat from orbit. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick shared a shimmering time-lapse image of the moon setting in a red-green auroral glow.
Dominick posted the video to X on August 12. The video shows parts of the ISS as well as a docked Russian Soyuz capsule. The capsule is bathed in blue light as the moonset is followed by a sunrise. The ISS moves quickly. Astronauts on board can experience 16 sunrises and sunsets every day. This also means they can enjoy many moonrises and moonsets. In time-lapse, the moon looks like a glowing dot falling toward Earth.
Dominick is a proud photography fanatic. He has shared several images of bright auroras dancing through the atmosphere. “The auroras have been incredible the past few days,” Dominick tweeted. “Great timing to try out a new lens that recently arrived on Cygnus.” Cygnus is a cargo ship that brought 8,200 pounds of supplies, including new camera lenses, to the ISS on August 6.
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick took a selfie on the ISS.
There is a long tradition of professional photographers on the ISS and Dominick fits perfectly into this tradition. He launched to the ISS on March 3 as commander of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission. His stay in space is scheduled to last six months.
Dominick gives space fans a behind-the-scenes look at how he manages his photography work in microgravity. The time-lapse video is oriented so that the Earth is visible at the bottom of the frame. For us Earthlings, this makes visual sense, but ISS astronauts experience the view differently. In a series of tweets on August 11, Dominick showed how he sees the Earth oriented above him when he looks out the window.
Two versions of the same aurora image show what it looks like with Earth above and Earth below. The images were taken from the Dome, a multi-window vantage point on the ISS from which astronauts can observe the planet. “I usually rotate the images 180 degrees before posting them online as it looks more natural when you haven’t been hanging out in the Dome,” Dominick tweeted. “I guess I forgot this time, maybe because I got used to the ‘upside down’ orientation.”
The sun has been incredibly active, producing flares and coronal mass ejections – large ejections of solar material. “Eruptions and solar flares can disrupt radio communications, power grids and navigation signals, and pose a danger to spacecraft and astronauts,” NASA warned in a report about an intense solar flare on August 8. Flares can cause problems, but they can also produce the picturesque auroras that star in Dominick’s photographs and time-lapse images.
If you can’t get enough of the ISS views, check out NASA’s Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, a portal where you can explore, search, and download images taken by astronauts. Or you can simply follow Dominick’s photographic adventures and see the world through the eyes of a space dweller with a knack for cameras.
